In the last 10 years, almost a million of our military’s servicemen and servicewomen have come from rural communities. As these veterans return home, they bring with them an opportunity to employ their passion, discipline, and sense of service to revitalize America’s small farms and rural communities. Learn more about our training and support programs for veteran farmers.

The Center for Rural Affairs is partnering with Women, Food, and Agriculture Network (WFAN) to help aspiring and beginning women farmers turn their farming dreams into reality through training and mentorships with established women farmers. Learn more about upcoming opportunities for women farmers.

Farms are businesses, and as with any business, sound financial planning is crucial to success. Considering your farm finances is especially important for beginners getting started and for landowners considering farm transfers.

One key to having a viable small-scale farm is producing a high-value product. Customers will pay more for non-generic, non-commodity products that make are unique to your farm. These products return a higher profit to your farm business.

After the survey was completed, CFRA held a series of focus groups for each of the project relevant groups – consumers, producers, food-serving institutions and grocery stores. This supplemental report provides findings and observations from those focus groups.

On Valentine’s Day this year, Nebraska faced the loss of Farm to School champion and innovative agricultural entrepreneur, Barb David of Oak Ridge Farms Hydroponics. She passed away at home in Ord.

Barb has been a leader with farm to school in the state, actively serving on our Farm to School Advisory Committee. She stood by our side to talk about the challenges and successes of supplying her year-round hydroponic bibb lettuce to Nebraska schools and institutions.

Americans overwhelmingly support Country-of-Origin-Labeling (COOL). America’s COOL law requires that retailers inform consumers about the country where beef, pork, lamb and certain other agricultural products were produced.

In 2009 Canada and Mexico challenged COOL provisions related to muscle cuts of beef and pork as an alleged barrier to trade. They argued that the cost of implementing COOL discouraged U.S. meatpackers from purchasing livestock of non-U.S. origin and as a result, reduced the prices of those livestock imports.